The controversy around the emergence of the sixth Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission reflects the country’s failing anti-corruption war and its uncertain future. Ola Olukoyede was approved as new EFCC head after another shambolic Senate screening and amid protests by groups questioning his qualification for the job, and the continued detention of his predecessor, Abdulrasheed Bawa. Olukoyede and Musa Aliyu, who has been nominated to head the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, will need uncommon courage to rid Nigeria of graft.

Set up as the arrowhead of the fight to crush corruption, EFCC, since its take-off in 2003, has had a rough existence. Controversy is its handmaiden. Olukoyede’s arrival typifies this. Some insist that he does not meet the criteria set out in the enabling law for appointment as the CEO, his experience in law enforcement being limited to the few years he served as chief of staff in the agency.

Critics say that the 15 years of cognate experience in the police or other security occupation stipulated by the EFCC Act therefore precludes him from the position. His supporters dismiss this. The Senate, compliant as ever, did not allow robust debate and a satisfactory resolution, but swiftly rubber-stamped President Bola Tinubu’s choice. Opponents have headed for the court.

He has entered a minefield. His five predecessors were each hounded out of office; four were accused of corrupt practices. The pioneer chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, has turned full circle. Having plunged headlong into partisan politics after his ouster, he is currently Tinubu’s National Security Adviser, comfortable in the company of the same persons he once accused and investigated for corruption.

His successors – Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu (who was never confirmed), and Bawa – were similarly humiliated out of office, and accused of graft.

Bawa, the first insider, having been recruited and spent his entire career in the agency, unlike the first four who were veteran police officers, is having a worse deal. Tinubu and the Directorate of State Services are violating his freedom with impunity. He has been detained for almost four months without trial, and his resignation communicated from captivity.

Can Olukoyede deliver? Many Nigerians are pessimistic. Subverted from inception, and continuously by successive presidents and their attorneys-general, the EFCC has been more effective in harassing fraudsters than stopping brazen treasury looting.

The country suffers. At the federal, state, and local governments, looting is the main preoccupation. The US Commerce Department says that 40 per cent of public procurement sums is routinely stolen. Chatham House, a British non-profit, estimates that about $582 billion of public funds were pilfered 1960 to 2019. Another estimate puts the amount stolen 1999 to 2019 at N11 trillion. A joint NEITI/Trust Africa report reckons that over 62 per cent of the funds required to finance Nigeria’s annual budget is stolen.

Both agencies have however fought bravely on despite the subversion of the political overlords and the shortcomings of their own heads, and kept the anti-corruption flame alive, though barely. The EFCC secured 3,785 convictions in 2022, recovered N152 billion and $386 million in 2021. The ICPC also recovered N454 billion stolen funds in the four years to June 2022, and secured 90 convictions.

But while internet fraudsters, scammers, and lower-level officials are nabbed, the PEPs are walking free, having nearly emasculated the agencies.

Olukoyede and Aliyu’s assignment are daunting. At least 25 current high office holders, including Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, many other senators and ministers, and ex-governors of the ruling party have been variously accused of corruption.

Both men will therefore need to muster exceptional courage to execute their mandate. Nigerians should support them.

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